What a fantastic lens! Technically it's great: autofocus is very quick, the 34mm (35mm equivalent) range is great for
street shooting (and, in my opinion, is even fine for certain portrait
shots), and it is super-solidly built. The all-metal build focuses smoothly, and the Snapshot Focus mechanism allows users to take spontaneous images by setting the focusing point based on a specific distance.

Most importantly, the resulting images are
very sharp even wide open, with little apparent aberration. The large aperture allows for excellent Depth of Field blur, and the
bokeh is quite beautiful.

Olympus gave us an ETA of December 15, and we are taking pre-orders now!

Below
are several sample images. Please note that due to the limited time I
had with the lens, I rushed through many of these shots, shooting most
of them wide open at f/1.8, moving too quickly in some cases to lower
the ISO. Grain at 800 ISO is therefore user error, my apologies. That
said, I'm really impressed and looking forward to getting one!

Despite the 34mm focal distance (35mm equivalent), great for street portraits in my opinion, particularly with the shallow depth of field and great bokeh. Olympus 17mm f1.8 M.ZUIKO on the Olympus OM-D EM-5, 1/100 sec. at f/2.0, ISO 2000, EV +1/3.

The benefit of using it on the OM-D EM-5: relatively sharp handheld shots at 1/10 of a second! Olympus 17mm f1.8 M.ZUIKO on the Olympus OM-D EM-5, 1/10 sec. at f/4.5, ISO 400, cropped 50%.

Shot wide open at f/1.8 with two men walking
towards me, so not expecting them to be tack sharp, or even in
focus--but they almost are thanks to the quick focusing of the lens and
the OM-D EM-5. I liked the glow coming off the hot dog stand. Cropped
approximately 30%. 1/160 sec. at f/1.8, ISO 800.

Photography Friends of H and B Digital

About H and B Digital

H and B Digital is an electronics and digital camera store in NYC. We are an authorized dealer for a variety of popular brands at competitive prices. Shop at our online store or visit our photo store in NYC. At H and B Digital you'll come in as a customer and leave as a friend!